Interviewing Online: Qualitative Research in the Network(ed) Society

This paper seeks to extend the conversation about the use of computer-mediated communication in qualitative research by focusing in particular on two issues of importance to qualitative researchers: building rapport and interpreting meaning. After giving an account of how the Internet was utilised in a research project with young adults, the qualities of the resulting qualitative data are discussed. Two computer-based communication media were used to conduct semi-structured interviews: e-mail and online chat. It was found that the e-mail medium was very successful in eliciting rich replies from participants, but it was sometimes difficult to read the emotional tone in which the e-mails were written. Chat room interviews were not successful in eliciting narrative responses due to the constraints of the medium, but the use of paralinguistic devices to approximate speech enhanced the reading of meaning. Computer-mediated communication can be a useful addition to the qualitative researcher's toolbox